Gifts

                 I hope you all get to spend a few minutes- or more- with your family around the hearth and/or Christmas tree this holiday season. Of course, this time of year can be hectic, but let’s all try to remember that this season is about gifts. Not the ones we hope we get, but the ones we give…and the ones we have already received, but maybe don’t truly appreciate or recognize as the gifts they are.  Such as our very lives. Our family and friends, wives and husbands. Shared memories. Accidents we’ve survived or never had.

                I am always taken aback when I see, say, a wealthy young woman come out of a beauty salon when it’s very windy, and put her hands to her hair and shout something like, “damn it, my perm will be ruined,  why is this happening to me?”

                And on the other hand, I sometimes see, say,  a veteran in a wheelchair with no arms and/or legs, smiling and joking with others. It is a shocking mental juxtaposition. The healthy, wealthy, often very attractive woman, feels oppressed and unlucky. The vet with the grievous, life-changing injuries feels blessed and lucky to be alive. Circumstances don't determine one's  fate. It is one’s attitude and  fortitude.

                And speaking of grievous injuries and fortitude, there is the specter of Jesus on the cross. Life changing?

                For all of us.

                Resurrection.

                The greatest gift of all.

                Merry Christmas.